The best formal education of my life came through two professors at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, when I was doing master’s work in creative writing and acting. Anne Greene and John Hawkins released me from the kind of secondary education boundaries created by the metaphorical mental handcuffs some paths of education place on budding students’ creative energy.
My undergraduate at Iowa State in journalism was peppered with some intensely dedicated professors, Tom Emmerson and Bill Kunerth highest among them.
But for sheer launching power, I remember not just the teacher who mattered, but my father’s reaction to her words.
Dad came home from a parent-teacher conference one evening when I was in the eighth grade and announced: “Mrs. Brick said you are going to be a writer.”
That prediction cracked open a window to a new world; throughout my years of education, I worked to honor Esther Brick’s belief in me.
I learned another lesson Monday night during the Webster City School Board Candidate Forum this newspaper cohosted with Kendall Young Library: Any of the candidates would be just fine. There is a deep field of smart people wanting to serve and we are that lucky.
But hear me out.
It may not matter who gets on the school board because, as we were reminded Monday evening, the guidelines that board must follow are not under its control. Make no mistake, they will be powerless in many cases to create the rules. Much of that falls to the state.
What truly matters is what is in their hearts.
More than 10,000 viewers dropped in on Monday’s forum through the DFJ’s live Facebook stream.
Here is what I gleaned from comments:
The concept of transparency kept creeping into the forum. What does it mean? Does it mean that most of us want to better understand how students are taught? There are a ton of confusing acronyms. Could we translate some of that to us normal folks?
Or does the concern about transparency mean that some of us wonder why there seems to be a lack of open discussion about issues the school board faces, as though they have made up their minds before the official meeting is called to order? I’ve been on boards that do that. It skirts open meetings law and, though not specifically illegal, it is, in my opinion, a bad way to conduct business.
Why is the screen on which PowerPoint presentations are made viewable only by the board, with any audience members simply left to wonder what supportive materials they are not able to see? Wouldn’t a simple furniture rearrangement be more inclusive? Right now it feels like we’re seated in the studio audience of a scripted show.
Why doesn’t the school board include supporting materials for every legally required published agenda? Those documents are so helpful when it comes to transparently understanding the road to the board’s decision-making.
And why, I wonder, are teachers leaving this school district? That question was on people’s minds watching the forum. In all this overuse of the word transparency, could someone please give the community that pays your bills the courtesy of a genuine answer? And then could we, collectively, try to improve the situation?
Why did a graduate of Webster City High School tell me that the school values boys over girls? I wonder: is this true?
More than one person commented on our local fixation with sports. Isn’t it time to break out of that paradigm?
Now before you go telling me to stay in my lane, let me remind you that my father was the youngest American Association baseball umpire to work an All-Star game before World War II got its hooks into him. Before that, he was a varsity Lynx starter in both basketball and football. The war shook the game out of him. He did not return to his umpiring career. Later in life, he was affectionately referred to as a part-time farmer and full-time golfer. He loved passing on his passion for the sport to young students, though not as a credentialed teacher. He did it simply because he loved to share knowledge.
This is the same man who leaned against the pink-painted kitchen door to our farmhouse, close to tears of joy when delivering Mrs. Brick’s prediction after that parent-teacher conference.
Where is the praise for our history, art, music and English teachers? Isn’t it time we talked about our rock star rocketry leaders and let them become legendary? Are only sports leaders worthy of that mythical crown?
Does anyone else long for more?
There’s a whole world of opportunity out there awaiting the students who will ultimately become adults. What their parents want is an assurity of equality. They want to know that education will open the gates for their kids to succeed in a future that may not be dominated by a hoop, net or football field.
There is nothing business as usual about our times right now, despite all the historic echoes. To meet these challenges, we need to understand that the days of business-as-usual answers are over.
And then we need to embrace the inevitable change.
When we do that, let’s put our hearts into it and help each student find their own Esther Brick.
Jane Curtis is editor of the Daily Freeman-Journal. She is an Iowa Newspaper Association Master Columnist.